Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Big Data in Retail


Let’s say you walk into a store to buy a few things. When it comes time to pay, you swipe your loyalty card and are presented with discounts on certain products and coupons. Maria Pope Toliopoulos, the Senior Vice President and Director of National Retail Leasing and Services for RPAI stated: “Retailers have a better sense of how to market directly to me, not me as a class or type of shopper, but me, Maria. Customized coupons and specials are made possible by that competitive advantage as are specials targeted for one’s birthday and curated suggestions based on my previous purchases and browsing patterns” (globest.com).

Retailers who avidly use analytics and study their big data results are watching what links you as a shopper are clicking on, which sites you went to before clicking on theirs and which sites you went to afterwards. Online stores put tracking cookies on their site, and when you agree to browse a site that uses them, you are ultimately agreeing in a sense to publicly display the data you share. Companies online are realizing the importance of focusing on understanding the conversion rates on their sites. Improving the conversion rates can lead to a growth in brand awareness and profits.

Read the full article here: http://www.globest.com/sites/johnsalustri/2017/05/16/big-data-the-ultimate-in-customer-tracking/?slreturn=20170418213740

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Big Data in Sports


Though we know big data exists in the digital world, it can also be applied to things we may normally not think about such as sports. Big data allows athletes and coaches to stay on top of their performance through collecting information about their training, food intake, sleep patterns, and how the individual plays overall in a sport. One of the biggest fears, however, is the possibility of the data coming into the hands of people who will use it to discover the weaknesses of certain players.


Sports such as Formula One racing rely heavily on their data and analytics. Data theft and malware infection are only two of many issues sports have faced in the past. “In F1, their entire business is data”, John says. “If you get a data loss or a system loss or even a malware infection you’ve effectively lost the race.” If you look at an F1 team they have data centers sitting there by the side of the track, processing every nanosecond of race and training performance. If any of that data got into the wrong hands it could be disastrous, which is why teams like Williams F1 are taking data security extremely seriously” (forbes.com). Data is an important advantage that plays a role in determining key decisions and competitiveness. Because of its importance, it needs to be carefully monitored and protected in companies and even sports businesses.

Sunday, May 14, 2017

Analytics Data Monetization: YouTube Edition

With so much analytics data being stored, companies are quickly realizing that they are sitting upon a potential money goldmine. Sure, they use the data within the business itself to make large decisions, plan ahead, improve in certain areas, and essentially grow the company, but others can use it too, and will pay for their analytics. Businesses recognize the importance of valuation of intangible properties such as the data, but not too many of them realize how significant their data is, and how imperative it can be to the success of its digital transformation process.


According to sloanreview.mit.edu, “companies can take three approaches to monetizing their data: (1) improving internal business processes and decisions, (2) wrapping information around core products and services, and (3) selling information offerings to new and existing markets.” Each of these approaches are diverse in their what they are capable of and the commitments they require, however all of them represent an important chance for a company to set itself apart in their market field.

In order for company leaders to monetize their data assets, it is important that they develop tactical monetization strategies. Additionally, they need to keep the strategies as important assets and consistently focus on not only how to stay on top of, but also improve. A monetization strategy can be defined as: “a plan to achieve one or more business goals through tactics or actions that have a quantified benefit” (retailcustomerexperience.com).

YouTuber’s Monetization
As someone who spends a large amount of time on the website YouTube watching videos or listening to music, I have always been fascinated about how the YouTube channels are making money, and how the advertisements, brand deals, or partnerships come into play. Recently an issue of advertisement monetization has sparked tremendous outrage within the YouTube community. Large channels with over millions of subscribers have noticed a dip in their wallets. YouTube had begun demonetizing several videos, thus leading to many angry, frustrated, and upset YouTubers.


Now you may be wondering how does YouTube demonetizing videos have anything to do with data analytics? The analytics from the YouTube channels specific to individuals were one of the first ones to take hard hits. Their data displayed that because they were losing on monetized videos, they were losing people, and losing people means losing money. YouTubers rely on their analytics to show brands, business partners, and companies that why they should invest their product, time, or services on them. There have been times where YouTubers have even admitted to selling their channel analytics data. The digital revolution has made it so that hundreds of thousands of individuals can take the entrepreneurial side of the career path. Through one channel developing thousands then subsequently millions of subscribers, it is only a matter of time before their “business” takes off. There are kids the age of 13 making millions of dollars a year through posting videos online. Their online following has led several companies to change their courses of spending their marketing budget. The analytics taken from a channel such as Logan Paul, goes further than just how many views his channels makes on a single video, but also how many people are purchasing his merchandise, following him on social media, interacting, etc. Because there are many potential revenue streams, Paul is able to form a business out of his channel. If he chooses to monetize his analytics data, companies will perhaps have more of an insight as to what they should do for their businesses.

Traditional companies are rapidly realizing the importance of watching, maintaining, and being receptive to their data analytics. Whether it is the data from their YouTube channel, or analytics from their website, if they choose to, they can take all the information they’ve gathered and make a profit.

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